It has long been known in the art that fractures in long bones, such as the femur, can be successfully treated through the use of intramedullary nails. The nail is positioned to span the fracture, and often attached on opposite ends directly to the bone. While the fracture is healing, the nail prevents twisting and lateral movement in the fracture area, and carries loads across the fracture that the bone is otherwise unable to support. After the fracture has sufficiently healed, the intramedullary nail may be detached from the bone and sometimes removed from the patient.
Femoral intramedullary nailing is often used to treat traumatic injury. Because of this, hospitals must stock a large number of nails for treatment of all possible patients. Typical nail sets within a hospital inventory include nails with lengths ranging from 32 cm to 46 cm, in 2 cm increments, and nails with diameters ranging from 10 mm to 15 mm, in 1 mm increments. The base number of nails that must be kept in the hospital's inventory is then doubled because most nails within the length and diameter ranges must be stocked for both left and right femoral use. This large number of nails that must be stocked is then increased threefold with the need to stock nails for treatment of first generation nails (as used in interlocking applications), second generation nails (as used in reconstructive applications) and retrograde nails.
One solution to the high inventory requirement of the prior art is for hospitals to stock intramedullary nail systems that utilize modularity to alleviate the need for left and right nails, thereby cutting the number of nails stocked in half. When using a modular system, the surgeon assembles an intramedullary nail from an inventory of base portions and distal portions for either left or right bone treatment at the onset of surgery. While this system reduces the total number of nails that must be kept in stock by hospitals, the actual inventory is only marginally reduced due to the need to stock left and right distal portions for the range of nail diameters. Further, because current nailing systems that utilize modularity to alleviate the need for left and right nails do not address the need for different nails for different fracture treatments (interlocking construction or retrograde), hospitals must still stock a multitude of nails.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above and to reducing the number of intramedullary nails and attachments that must be inventoried by hospitals.